1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of cancer research. More specifically, the present invention relates to gene expression profiling of uterine serous papillary carcinomas and ovarian serous papillary tumors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ovarian serous papillary cancer (OSPC) represents the most common histological type of ovarian carcinoma and is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in women in the United States. Endometrial cancer is the most frequent cancer of the female genital tract with endometrioid (type 1) and serous papillary (type 2) being the most common cell types. Histologically indistinguishable to high grade serous ovarian carcinoma, uterine serous papillary cancer (USPC) has a propensity for early intra-abdominal, lymphatic and distant metastatic spread even at presentation and is characterized by a highly aggressive biological behavior. Unlike ovarian serous papillary cancer which is responsive to first line combined cisplatinum-based chemotherapy in 70% to 80% of the cases, uterine serous papillary cancer is a chemotherapy-resistant disease from outset, with responses to cytostatic agents in the order of 20% and of short duration.
Gene expression fingerprints representing large numbers of genes have the potential to allow precise and accurate grouping of tumors endowed with similar phenotype. Gene microarrays may identify cancers endowed with a more aggressive biologic behavior (i.e., rapidly metastatic tumors) that are unresponsive to standard adjuvant therapies and may thus allow improved prediction of response and clinical outcome. Consistent with this view, in large B-cell lymphomas and breast carcinomas, gene expression profiles have been shown to identify patients who are unlikely to be cured by conventional therapy.
In ovarian carcinoma, cDNA microarray technology has recently been used to identify numerous genes differentially expressed in normal and tumor derived ovarian epithelial cells. Interestingly, several of the most up-regulated genes encode surface or secreted proteins, such as Kop, SLPI and claudin-3, making these products attractive candidate biomarkers. In contrast, very little is known about the possible genetic diversity between ovarian serous papillary cancer and uterine serous papillary cancer, two histologically similar serous carcinomas characterized by a dramatically different biological behavior and response to chemotherapy. Thus, the prior art is deficient in understanding the molecular basis of the differences between ovarian serous papillary cancer and uterine serous papillary cancer. The present invention fulfills this need in the art by providing gene expression profiling for these two types of cancer.